I suppose reviewing this release is rather futile. It's only two songs, can't be longer than fifteen minutes, and it's probably out of print by now. But I'll be damned if this isn't one of the finest IDM / whatever releases to come my way for a while.

Dylan Nathan (AKA Jega) and Mike Paradinas (AKA µ-ziq, Kid Spatula, Jake Slazenger, et al) have been good friends for a while. Rumor has it, in fact, that Mike convinced Dylan to start making music and lent him some gear. The influence of µ-ziq on Jega can clearly be heard; his "drill'n'bass" stylings were adapted and then built upon by Jega. On this twelve inch piece of clear vinyl, they come together and contribute some of their best respective tracks.

Jega's track isn't so much a track by him as it is the Two Lone Swordsmen. The seminal IDM duo find one of their tracks, Black Commandments, restructured into a whole new track by sir Jega. Theresult is one of my favorite Jega tracks ever, Unity Gain. Starting off with a sort of distorted organ typical of his work, cut-up drums slowly enter the mix until they go all-out with a memorable vocal sample ("stop the beat, drop the beat!")

Kid Spatula's track, Hard Love, is not the usual fare from Mike Paradinas. I haven't heard anything from this alias prior to this split, but I was expecting something similar to µ-ziq - I was quite surprised! Hard Love is an ultrafast, melodic hardcore techno piece that surprised me with how many hi-hats he could pack into a few seconds. The track took me by surprise, and required some adjusting-to (I also had to turn the bass on my speakers down), but I find myself listening to it over and over.

A short, but must-have release. Two classic tracks from two of techno's most respected names (well, maybe Jega won't be so respected if his new album sucks as much as Spectrum did..). If at all possible, pick this up - you won't regret it